Encyclopedia Judaica:Gyongyos, Hungary

GYONGYOS (Hung. Gyöngyös), city in N. Hungary. Jews are first recorded there in the 15th century, and in 1735 there was an organized community. The synagogue, built before the end of the 18th century, was destroyed in the great fire which devastated the city in 1917. The community always remained a
*status quo ante
community, though a separate Orthodox community was established in 1870. The first rabbi of the community was Feivel b. Asher Boskovitz; he was succeeded by Wolf Lippe (officiated 1840–50), a noted bibliophile. Eleazar Fuerst (1853–1893) founded a yeshivah in the town. The Jewish population numbered 2,250 in 1920, and 2,429 in 1941. In June 1944 they were deported to Auschwitz; of these only 461 survived the Holocaust. There were 300 Jews in Gyongyos in 1946 and 414 in 1949. Most left in 1956.